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Any ideas on how I could get a sound similar to an electric drill, very abrasive, but still with some frequencies to give it a pitch?

I've tried many different things with cross mod, vpm, noise, ring, sync, waveshaping, filter mod, lfo mod and effects, but I always spend a good 20 to 30 minutes on a patch before getting nowhere and not saving in a fit of frustration.

I think getting the harsh, abrasive characteristic of a drill will need some sort of very fast lfo modulation of something, but I can't figure out what. Also, a lot of saws to make it close to noise but still pitched.

Depends what kind of drill you're after too.

A hammer-action or masonry drill will have a definate regular 'thump' as it powers into the wall.
A dentist's drill is relatively quiet and will be more of a high pitched whine.

A drill in the room next door sounds more like a violent vibration (a bit like a mobile phone on a hard, flat wooden surface)

tpantano wrote:
I think getting the harsh, abrasive characteristic of a drill will need some sort of very fast lfo modulation of something, but I can't figure out what.

Probably amplitude (tremolo) and maybe filter cutoff as well. Probably need to add distortion and/or grain/decimator as an effect for the abrasive sound. Haven't tried it myself though, so these are just guesses as to how I'd approach it initially.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5S0dkLZoTg

1:58

maybe I'm thinking of the wrong power tool, but that.

Hi,

well this would have been a good challenge fot the RPC

The first thing that comes to my mind with such a sound is the frequency. A drill goes from 0 to its work frequency in a short time (0,5 ~ 1 sec maybe?). Depending on the load (push force and resistance from the material being drilled) it's frequency may slow down and/or rise depending on that load. When the switch or trigger is released, the freqency drops to 0 again. What do we get from this facts? An envelope with attack high sustain (to avoid decay) and release.

The second fact the drill has a motor and gears, where the motor has a high pitch that is reduced by the gears, so it is a combination of different frequencies and waves that have something in common: they vary proportionally to the RPM in the same relation.

The third would be the bit in the material, which creates a grinning and scratching sound and the resonances that come from the material being drilled. Hmm.. this reminds me the movie marathon man, a simple but very effective effect with that dentist drill.

I think you will need to combine and synchronize all possible oscillators and LFO's to get such a sound. Good luck!

Here's what I have so far. Could easily be used in some nice industrial dubstep or something

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1715217/drillaudio.mp3
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1715217/drillpatch.r3p

Wow, that ia a good aproximation, tpantano. Now you could try to get more harmonics from it (maybe with the comb filter?)

axxim wrote:Wow, that ia a good aproximation, tpantano. Now you could try to get more harmonics from it (maybe with the comb filter?)

well, I used a serial high pass to cut a little off the low end, which was too full sounding. But I could fool around with having filter 1 somewhere between high and low pass, then put in a comb.

Driller.r3p

Start with a low note, legato to other notes to change the pitch then end with a low note before release.

Today I've tried to make on R3 sync'ed lead from Laserdance's "Shotgun", but in the end I've achieved something faaar more interesting.

http://rapidshare.com/files/445651424/synrizer2.r3p

Hold lower E note on R3 keyboard and enjoy

You can also play with EG3 parameters to change character of this "rising".